23 May National New Employee Orientation with the Forest Service!

First and foremost, it has to be noted that I got one of the rare opportunities to meet the Chief of the Forest Service, Chief Randy Moore, in person! There I am in the picture above, just to the left of him, along with the rest of my awesome team, the New Employee Experience team! I was so grateful to have the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak and engage with new employees. He touched on important issues the Forest Service is facing, like trouble with retention and housing, as well as made sure that new employee voices were heard during the Q&A portion (even if that meant going over his allotted time haha). It was evident that Chief Randy Moore is passionate about what he does and that makes me all the more grateful to be in the position that I’m in.

So, how’d I end up here? Well, as part of the New Employee Experience team, as you can imagine, I get the opportunity to assist with all things new employee related, including the National New Employee Orientation. I believe that this was one of the first in-person orientations the Forest Service has held since before COVID and took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was tasked with all things tech. Now, I’m no tech wizard but luckily the job mostly consisted of changing slides for presenters and putting on some cool music during breaks. I was more than happy to help in any way and I also got a front row seat to all the informative presentations put on. 😁 I also got the opportunity to engage with Forest Service peeps as well as new employees to the agency. Not to mention the fact that I finally got to meet my entire team in-person! We coordinated wearing tracksuits on our last day together and here were are in our lovely tracksuits in the photo below. Just cheesin’ right after bonding over a nice New Mexican breakfast.

I truly feel so lucky to be part of the New Employee Experience team. Each and every one of them have treated me with nothing but kindness and are always there to help and guide me. To my fellow resource assistants, know that when you get hired on permanently, the New Employee Experience team will be there to help you with settling in and making you welcome! 🤗